Saturday, June 20, 2015

Henrik Lundqvist Will Never Leave the Rangers; is Taking Blood Thinners; Would Like Alex Ovechkin to Become a Ranger










GOTHENBURG. The season is over. On the ice, that is.

Eurogoals met Henrik Lundqvist, 33, between the commercial shots and talked about the severe damage to donate money to beggars and that Stanley.

The commercials about that hårschampot've itself become such a hot topic that it is neither something to conceal or unjustifiable journalistic asking about when we hit Lundqvist in a sober environment between recordings on one of Gothenburg's central major hotel.
PR adviser calls me and wonder if we could come earlier than agreed because they are ahead in today's schedule. Henrik Lundqvist is now not only one of the world's best hockey goalies, but also a talented actor.

Have you become such a fox on these films that you put the first shot directly?

- It's about me and the gang in production know each other very well now. It helps when we are running out of time. It runs smoothly.
- Then know Calle (Schulman, creative director) that I do not always sit down in the boat. It is not always a tailwind in the conversation. But in the end we find right along. It has been a fun trip.

Ordinary people wonder anyway: Why continue Henrik Lundqvist making Head & Shoulders commercial?

- A large part of it is how much fun we have together. I get to be with and control. That's right people involved.

You run the right hard on yourself.

- It's the whole thing. One should not take it too seriously. You have to push a little to himself. When it comes to hockey, it becomes the so full focus. Here it becomes more inversely with distance myself in other situations.

In plain language, you do not have this advertising for the money?

- Not to discuss the details of an agreement ... but that does not change my life, not the slightest. I see this as a way to learn something, an experience to which I might be valuable when I finish with hockey.
- Other productions are much more uppstyrda. There I have less to say. But this always end we will agree ... haha.

Henrik Lundqvist's hockey season was close to running out once in early spring to make it real for just over two weeks ago.
Then lost the New York Rangers seventh and decisive Stanley Cup semifinal against Tampa Bay (who then lost the final against Chicago recently).
You have previously told of how exhausted you been physically and mentally at the end of the seasons, how long rest during the summer has been absolutely essential. How do you feel now?

- That I had had the strength to play hockey for two weeks more ...
- I felt the biggest disappointment that we have not succeeded. The whole team felt that way, we thought we had a chance this year. There is so little taken.

Last January, he was struck by a puck on his neck, managed to play one more match before doctors discovered a serious neck injury which kept the goalkeeper out of the game a long time.

- The fact that I got the two-month break so I felt probably fresher when we went into the playoffs than in previous years. But the two months was rather high, to be able to handle the whole situation, not to play. It was something new for me. Furthermore, I realized how much I like everything, really everything, about hockey: the games, the trips, to be with the team, how to get along and everything you go through.

The injury itself, the battle, now with the distance and the new father to a second daughter, how has it affected you?

- It was a strange situation when I would go and wait for my blood vein in the neck could heal. Blood lode had become very weak when I was hit by the puck and the streak was broken so I risked being hit by a stroke and internal bleeding.
- The puck hit me on the neck and around the same time I pressed the back neck so hard that vein broke. Doctors had seen similar injuries in car accidents.
- I got massive headaches in the second game after the injury and that was when we went in and checked me further. "Luckily we saw it in time," said the doctors. Then I got myself a real eye-opener.

How carefully have you checked afterwards?

- In the beginning, I went and x-rayed my neck and brain every two weeks. First four weeks, nothing happened in the healing and that was what they had said, too. But then it got better.

And today, how much you checked?

- We made a new X-ray just before we went to Sweden. Everything looked good. I eat a kind of blood-thinning medication for a little while more.

Do you do anything differently after the injury?

- No, not now, but when the guys had to start shooting high on me so it was a bit uncomfortable. I recoiled to as driving a car again after driving off the road, man hugging the steering wheel a little tighter.

There are certain parallels between you and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. He talked about "that damn Champions". Is that that "damn Stanley" for you?

 - Yes! It's the one sitting right there, in front of one, says Lundqvist and holding up an invisible dent in front of his face.
- That's why I go to training, that's why I'm trying to get better, win more matches. That's what drives me, for sure. The closer I get, the hungrier I become.

What is missing?

- We have the game, a stable team and many good players. We may have to learn to step on the throat when we have the chance. Many series have gone to seven games for us. To determine past when we have the chance.

When you end up in a situation that you want to make a trade, swap teams to access that Stanley?

- Never! It was incredibly important for me to stay with the New York Rangers. The feelings I have for the organization, the fans and everyone around the team has given me, I would rather give everything over the years I have left to win with the Rangers than trying to do it elsewhere.
- Until the day I retire, I have to believe that we can win. As the NHL looks like it is much more evenly between the teams. Ten, fifteen years ago there were six, seven top teams who could win. So it is not now. Chicago is great, but since it is very open. The belief that we can win have become larger and larger.

We asked readers questions. A perfect here. Kevin Nordfors wonder: Which players would you like to get into the next season if you were Rangers general manager?

Lundqvist is silent for a moment, looking dreamily out the window and a rainy Avenue.

 I think Ovechkin is amazing good. Had we been able to get him into an outside edge which he had been able to pull in 25-30 goals in power play so it would have been good. He is terribly efficient in PP.

With both successful hockey career as acclaimed commercials of the baggage is Henrik Lundqvist of the Swedish athletic largest fixed stars behind Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Where are you most recognized on the street?

- It's probably in Sweden, at home in Gothenburg. In New York, it's so incredible people from all over the world, and so great is the hockey everywhere.

The current contract, valid until 2020, giving Lundqvist some 55 million a year in salary from the Rangers.
A stark contrast to the changed everyday picture in our streets.

How do you react to that it will people in Sweden who need to beg to survive?

- The fact that Sweden has changed. It Sweden, I grew up in Sweden and it is today is not the same society.

Henrik Lundqvist stops. Thinking long and weighs the words:

- It is much improved, but there are also pieces that we as a country need to get better at.

What are you thinking then?

- In Sweden, we want to have the perception that everything is working very well here. So it is basically, but then when you return home here so you can see things a little differently.

Gives you a coin to a beggar that you walk by?

- In New York, one sees a lot of beggars and yes, then I usually give a penny. It is a good deed, and I hope that good things happen to people who do good. Silly, but I'm a little superstitious, and then I tell myself that "maybe then we win tomorrow."
I donate even clothing. It need not be much. It is the gesture that matters. A little is better than nothing.

How do you give away clothes?

- We have a contact in New York. Instead of throwing away so it is better to give to people in need.

It sounds like some needy suddenly can get quite upscale clothing ...

- I'm like a hamster. I save all the time lot of stuff that I should have got rid of long ago. But those who are in need of clothing is not much use of my old suits. There are more warmer clothes we donate. There are some in the area where we live that takes care of the clothes which they then gives further. My wife (Therese) are good at it. It is she who said to me when we have to clean up and take hold of those things and make sure you get it right, says Henrik Lundqvist.
- I can be impressed by how much time and money, some people in the US puts on helping others, but that need is also much larger than this.






Thank you to reader Annsofie for sending me this interview!





Thursday, June 11, 2015

See Tag Heuer Present Henrik Lundqvist With a Custom Watch




NEW YORK, June 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Fresh off the 2015 Eastern Conference Finals, the famed New York Rangers goalie, Olympic Gold Medalist and Vezina Trophy winner visits TAG Heuer's 5th Avenue Boutique, where he received a brand new CARRERA 1887 timepiece engraved with #DontCrackUnderPressure.

True to his determination for ultimate precision and accuracy, Henrik Lundqvist chose one of the most iconic sports chronographs of all time, the TAG Heuer CARRERA 1887 Chronograph. Housing an integrated column-wheel, the automatic chronograph movement is a new generation of the CARRERA, the legendary sports chronograph series designed by Jack Heuer in 1964. The CARRERA 1887 celebrates and emphasizes the original minimalism and understated elegance yet is re-invented with a radical new "engine". The Calibre 1887 turns it into a 3rd Millennium chronograph in terms of size, quality, performance and accuracy making it the perfect statement piece for Henrik Lundqvist.

Jean-Claude Biver, CEO of TAG Heuer and President of LVMH Watches believes Henrik Lundqvist truly epitomizes the TAG Heuer brand saying, "Henrik's passion, spirit and determination exude TAG Heuer's DNA and #DontCrackUnderPressure mentality. He couldn't have chosen a more perfect timepiece to express his precision and accuracy in his sport with TAG Heuer's exclusive, in-house, CARRERA 1887 timepiece."

As the New York Rangers last line of defense, Henrik knows all about standing up to pressure — fighting a great 2015 season and making it to the Eastern Conference Finals. Known for his athleticism, acrobatic saves, endurance, clutch performances and superior style, Henrik remains the undisputed king of New York.

Henrik joins other great TAG Heuer sporting celebrities — Cristiano Ronaldo, Maria Sharapova, Kei Nishikori, Jenson Button, Jeremy Lin, Sebastien Ogier, and Marlou van Rhijn among them — in spreading the Swiss watchmaker's legendary message #DontCrackUnderPressure.

TAG Heuer: the Swiss Avant-Garde watchmaker since 1860. Its rich heritage is built on pushing boundaries and breaking rules: harnessing mental fortitude to overcome technology restraints and create daring watches and chronographs. Long-lasting partnerships with motor racing teams and charismatic ambassadors drive it to break with watchmaking conventions, and, as a consequence, master time with unparalleled precision. The brand's motor racing DNA, as well as the amazing athletes who belong to its dream team, reflect its core values of teamwork, mental strength, courage and ambition. Its slogan, DON'T CRACK UNDER PRESSURE, is far more than a claim--it is a mindset.

The Henrik Lundqvist Foundation: The Henrik Lundqvist Foundation (HLF), launched in 2014 by NY Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvistand his wife Therese, is an international grant making organization, which strives to create positive change in the lives of children and adults throughout the world through education and health services. HLF is proud to support NY Presbyterian Children's Hospitals, Food Bank for New York City, Ronald McDonald House Barnfond ("Children's Fund"), Together for Better and the Garden of Dreams Foundation. To learn more, visit www.HLundqvistFoundation.com



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Henrik Lundqvist Talks Tag Heuer, the Blackhawks and More





June 8, 2015
By Aria Hughes
NEW YORK — It’s been a tough season for Henrik Lundqvist.

The New York Rangers goalie took a puck to his neck, which resulted in a vascular injury that kept him off the ice for three weeks, and his team was eliminated from the playoffs last week after a game seven loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

“We were just not good enough at home and in that last series,” said a reflective Lundqvist, who was promoting his new partnership with watchmaker Tag Heuer on Monday at its New York City store. “We lost three out of four of the home games and that’s not good enough. So that’s something we have to address.”

Lundqvist, who predicted that the Chicago Blackhawks will take home the Stanley Cup, is now focused on his brand ambassador role at Tag Heuer, which is owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. He joins a roster of athletes including soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo and tennis player Maria Sharapova, who have previously been featured in the brand’s “Don’t Crack Under Pressure” campaign.

“I liked the different projects that they do with their athletes and their slogan ‘Don’t Crack Under Pressure’ is what I do. It was a good fit,” Lundqvist said.

The athlete, who was wearing a navy Ralph Lauren suit, has become closely acquainted with the fashion industry over the past few years. He’s worked with brands ranging from Salvatore Ferragamo to Swedish men’s bodywear label Bread & Boxers, and he recently appeared on the cover of Bloomingdale’s Father’s Day catalogue with his daughter, Charlise, which was a first for Lundqvist.

“It was fun. There were a lot of people involved and she showed up with my wife and she was a little nervous at first, but it went well,” he said.

According to Lundqvist, he will spend his Father’s Day in Sweden by the ocean.

“I really don’t need to do anything. The season is so intense that when I go home I try to decompress a little,” he said.





http://wwd.com/menswear-news/clothing-furnishings/henrik-lundqvist-tag-heuer-blackhawks-10144930/